Monday, September 26, 2011

She's here. This post is a tad late as she will be a month old in 3 days, but she's here. We have waited for this beautiful life to come to our family for a long time. She is such a joy to care for and snuggle and really, just to hold. She looks so much like her big brother Logan.

The fact that she's here means I can put her in all the cute things I've made. The crocheted hats(only 1 has fit so far and is already too small), the blanket(she's more on that then in), the onesie dress(still a tad big on her)...I can't wait to make more things for her! I have already made another hat. So cute! I'll have to take a picture of her wearing it.

On another note: I have decided to make as many Christmas gifts as possible. We shall see how that goes! I need some more ideas...

Thursday, August 11, 2011

I made the cutest onesie dress. I thought I was done sewing for the day but I just couldn't stop **Nesting anyone?**. I didn't think about taking pictures along the way until I was about 95% done with the dress. So I'll just tell you what I did.

Step one: I used a NB onesie that was passed down to me. I measured about an inch down from the sleeves. This one was 6 1/2 inches across. Then, by not thinking, I cut right around 30 x 10. I would have made it smaller but as I started thinking about it I decided that was probably as good as any size since I was going to be gathering the 30" edge. It was perfect.

Step two: Use a gathering stitch (or just loosen your tension) across the 30" edge. I did about 1/2 an inch from the top. Gather.

**You need to decide where you want the fabric to sit on the baby. Like I said I wanted mine about an inch from the sleeves.

Step three: Make sure you have it gathered to the right size--If you gather too little or too much it wont turn out right so wrap it around your onesie and adjust if need be--and sew the seam up the side.

Step four: Hem bottom of fabric. I did a 1/2 inch and then folded it over 1/2 inch again. You can iron if you want, I just pressed with my fingers and then pinned. *Lazy*. Sew 1/4" from the edge.

Step five: Pin fabric to dress. Right side out Make sure you don't pin both sides of the onesie! I started with my seam on the side, you can put yours on the back if you want I just think it looks better on the side, and work my way around with my hand in the onesie. This made it easier to control which layers of cloth the pins were going through.

Step six: Sew carefully around the onesie. Try to sew over the gathering thread. You can stop here. I didn't.

Step seven: Hand sew lace, in effect hiding all the machine sewing at the top edge of the fabric. I, again, started at the side seam and slowly worked my way around. I wanted some of the fabric to be seen up over the top of the lace.Again, you can stop here and again I didn't.

Here is a picture of the ones I made. I used a large spool of thread for the small circles and the spool from the lace for the larger size. In the middle are just random buttons I had on hand. Then I just hand stitched them onto the onesie.

Now for some pictures of the finished dress.

The best part is this:
Onesie: Free
Fabric: Yard sale over a year ago for 2 bucks(I still have about a yard left)
Lace: Bought 2 years ago at 50% off= around .99.
Buttons: From random clothes over the years.
Total: less than $1 to make the whole thing. Can we say SCORE!

I am not a fan of zippers...sewing them that is. This might be because I'm not that good at it. I don't even really get it when I use the zipper foot on my sewing machine. It doesn't make it any easier. Anyone who says it does is a liar(I call it like I see it). I decided to make a pocket for my diaper bag which has a zipper. That one went fine, the top stitch around it could be straighter--and probably would be if a 5 year old had done it--but all in all it came out fine and it zips.

Today I decided that I needed to try and make a wet bag, we will be cloth diapering when baby #2 gets here. I had left over fabric from the diaper bag and I had bought some PUL(polyurethane laminated fabric) when it was on sale at Joann Fabric with the thought that maybe I'd give this a try instead of spending $16 on a store bought bag.
The bag itself was totally easy. I might make a smaller one for my wallet, phone, ect. The zipper really threw me for a loop this time.
I'm still trying to figure out what happened here---->

Really it wasn't part of the plan. Eh, what can you do? Maybe I'll get better at zippers or maybe I should just find someone who is good at them and beg them to share the magical powers that they must possess if they are actually good at zippers.

Really, in the grand scheme of things that little curve doesn't bother me. I just wish I knew how I did it so I can not do it next time!

I think the final product looks nice.
*Not sure why this picture is uploading upside down*

I added a snap and button to my wet bag. In the tutorial I used(see below) they just made a carrying strap, I wanted mine to hook to the diaper bag. The button is just for looks.

Monday, August 8, 2011

I really couldn't find a diaper bag that I loved--That was also under $150, and really who can afford that, I know I can't-- and I didn't want a diaper bag that everyone else had. So, I decided to make my own. I should note that I've never made a bag of any kind. Not even one of those sew 3 sides and your done kind. Bags have always intimidated me, but I gave it a try.

Second step, find the fabric. Easier said then done. I was in Joann Fabric for around 2 hours trying to decide. When I found something I liked I sent a picture to my hubby to see what he thought. It turns out I can't make a decision even to save my sanity--Did I mention I had 2 boys at the store with me?--and he was kind enough to give me his opinion. My favorite one was actually a combo that he liked to. YAY! Here's a picture of the fabric. Cute right? This was the last combo I tried with the green. There were about 8 others that I tried with it and while I liked them just fine it wasn't what I was looking for.

Third step, get over fears and get to work. I cut out the pieces in the middle of the night. Really, it was like 12am. Then started sewing everything together when I got up in the morning-around 7:30-8am. It was all so much easier than I thought it would be! In the tutorial I used the only thing that threw me off was the last step. Which way the lining needed to be turned. I did it wrong and had to seam rip the whole lining out. Not fun. I did figure it out. The zipper needed to be facing my outside pockets.

I finished somewhere in the 11:30-12:00 time frame so it did take me a little while to do. It was not the disaster I was expecting and I didn't have any melt downs--See: The Quilt that nearly did me in--I am totally happy with the bag and since this one turned out so good I want to try my hand at making other types of bags. I'm gonna get my sew on!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Ok, so "afraid" might be laying it on a bit heavy. I have around a yard or so of really cute flannel fabric with cupcakes on it. I got it a few years ago. I was buying a smaller amount for neck wraps I was making and it was the end of the bolt so they asked if I wanted it for 1/2 price. Well, Yes, yes I do. Now it sits nicely folded in my sewing bin waiting to become something spectacular. What the spectacular something will be.....yeah, your guess is as good as mine at this point. I want to sew something really bad and I want to use scraps/cuts that I have instead of going and buying new. I am going to go blog stalk now to see if I can come up with anything fun to make. Ideas?

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

I am working on an afghan for my beautiful niece Danielle. She asked me to make it for her and I of course said "Sure!!". That was last year. I said it would take a few weeks. Let me tell you the story of making this afghan. I can't tell you what it looks like because she hasn't seen it so I don't want to give her any clues- First:

I had a terrible time figuring out what pattern I wanted to use. I started the afghan at least 3 times. I figured out what I wanted and got started.Second: I was about 8 inches into the afghan when I realized that not only did I hate the feel of the yarn but it was giving me a rash where the yarn pulled across my finger as I crocheted. All in my mind? We'll never know.Third: New yarn. Start again. ALMOST DONE(!!!!) and our dog, who now lives in FL, the cold weather made her sick :( - decided that the afghan would b

e the perfect place to puke. I was livid!(I promise that indecent had nothing to do with her relocation)Forth: I had to take out a huge chunk of the afghan so that I could get rid of the puke yarn. Luckily it wasn't folded when the dog got sick so it was o

n a very small part...half why down the blanket. *sigh* I still want to cry when I think about how close I was to being done!Fifth: I am once again almost done. I kid you not if anything happens I will be forced to the conclusion that I was never meant to finish this freaking thin

g!

Oh I almost forgot Danielles younger sister(Brooke) wants one too. So I'll be making one for her as well. The only upside(other than the fact that I love

them both to pieces) is that they are short. I'm 5'8". Danielle at 18 is only 5'2"-ish...so the afghan doesn't have to be quite so long. Yay!!!
I'm really excited to see what she will think of it, my fingers

Thursday, June 23, 2011

I have been crocheting hats for the first time in my life. I'm finding it to be a lot easier than I thought it would be. I like that it's a faster project because making a blanket or afghan takes forever.

Hat one:

Hat Two:

Hat Three:I have made one more that's for me but I can't find the picture I took of it, and I'm to lazy right now to take a new one. :)I love the flowers on the last 2 hats. The first one I feel is missing something? I'm not sure what. Since I have no baby to try these on, I am really hoping they will fit the baby when she comes. My hubby keeps telling me I should sell the hats. I'm wondering would anyone want to buy one?Which flower is your favorite? Which hat?

Monday, June 20, 2011

Saturday I made Strawberry freezer jam. It came out awesome! So I was thinking the only thing that would make it better was fresh homemade bread to put it on. I decided to try a new recipe of the artisan realm of bread making.This is where it all went horrible wrong:

20 minutes before you are ready to bake the bread preheat the oven with a pizza stone in it at 450 F

Beneath the pizza stone place a broiler tray or roasting pan

Once you are ready to bake, dust the dough lightly once more and slice the bread for presentation

Slide the dough onto the pizza stone and add a cup of hot water to the pan beneath

Shut the oven door quickly, the added water to the pan beneath the stone will sizzle and steam which offers great crust results

I hadn't slept well the night before and I had already cleaned and made jam, my thinking had no doubt become slightly muddled.Everything was going as planned and I put the bread in the oven then got the water. I poured less then a 1/4 cup in when my brain clicked in with an echoing shout "You put a Glass pan in!!!!". That thought came about 2 seconds before this:

That's right, it exploded. Luckily for my son and I the glass didn't go far. We were both standing in the kitchen and while I was much closer some of the glass flew in his direction-none came my way- and landed about about a foot from him. He would have been burned if it had made it too him at the very least.I've been making bread for years. No bread machine just good old kneading. I have never had it fail like this. So I decided to try again and just forget the water part. The bread cooked just fine. BUT. It was nasty. It was so salty. I even checked the recipe a few times before I measured it into the recipe. Yuck.Moral of this story: Stick with the bread you know and don't put the glass pan in the oven to heat up...sheesh.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

I do not like people I don't know to touch me, I don't like people in check out line standing too close,-I swear I can feel them breathing on me and it makes me want to crawl out of my skin...issues? Probably.- I don't like people thinking that my being pregnant somehow makes my belly not a part of me, and I really, really don't like it when people I don't know or am not that close to touch my baby without asking. It irks me. I have no idea where these peoples hands have been. Yuck. I can't do anything about people standing to close and unfortunately, short of neck punching someone, I can't get people to not touch me, But, There is something I can do about people touching my baby-I wont lie if I have to I would resort to the whole next punching thing in regards to my baby luckily I think I've found a better solution.

My friend Kylee made one of these babies and all I could think was *Genius*! I googled it and found 2 blogs and read what they said(they were slightly different) and then did my own thing, kind of a combo of the 2.

Yes, my sewing box, there on the right, is a fishing tackle box. Don't judge me, it works. :-P

Double sided

This fabric is the fabric that I wanted to use for the babies quilt. Rich didn't like it-he was told that was the last time he would be included in helping pick out fabric, I don't think he was terribly disappointed-so I looked for another 20+ min. I think the fabric I ended up using was perfect for the quilt.I went back about a week later(alone...well I had 3 boys with me, I obviously didn't think that through), and got this fabric-In your face Ricardo!! haha-which I think is perfect for the carseat canopy/cover(The hubby likes it too, hmm, Maybe I should taken him a long when I get fabric because if he had liked it the quilt wouldn't be nearly as cute...).It was totally ridiculously easy to make. The hardest thing for me was where to put the straps and then getting them to be straight. I have to say I'm really happy with the turn out!

Now all I have to worry about is people telling me that I'm suffocating my baby under it. It's not shrink wrap folks.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

I always stress about things I make not being perfect. I will show my husband what I've made and the conversation will go something like this:Me: It's doneHubby: That's really awesome, babe!(I often wonder just how much he humors me)Me: I messed up a little here, this line isn't straight, look this isn't...Hubby: Rebecca, really? No one is going to notice that! I'm looking up close and wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't shown me!Me: I just wish it was perfect.Hubby: It doesn't matter if it's perfect, what matters is the work and thought you put into it.

He's right. When I made my sons quilt he didn't care that the thread wasn't all the same. He didn't care that the shapes weren't all exactly lined up. He cared that Mom made it just for him. When the baby gets here will she care that a line isn't straight? Nope, she will no doubt spit up on her blanket, and possible pee or poop on it. Lines wont be on her mind(or mine at that point.)

This is the blanket I made for our daughter on the way:

It's not perfect and I'm ok with that. The gift is that I made it just for her. She'll appreciate that one day. I know I have a blanket that someone made for me when I was a baby, and I love that I have it now and can use it for my baby girl.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

I've been crocheting a scarf for my husband for about 8 months...it was supposed to be a Christmas gift. Yes, it would seem I'm a tad late. I had stopped working on it, not really sure why. The day after Christmas we found out we were expecting our second child. I was sick for 4 months...during those months I did a whole lot of nothing. Well aside from strengthening my "friendship" with the toilet, good times.Anyway, I have started making hats and blankets for our little girl on the way. While going through my yarn stash I came across the scarf and decided to finish it up. Yay, I finished last night! Now my son wants one. Awesome.My hubby there on the right is modeling the scarf. I must say I'm pretty proud of it!Have you had a project that was set to the side and forgotten? Whats the longest you've had one sit?

Monday, June 13, 2011

There it is. It's not that impressive but it does the job. I used some fiber filler that I had on hand. I plan on filling it with more just as soon as I remember to buy more(don't hold your breath, I'm lucky to remember my name some days). I had thought about using foam but when I priced the thicker pieces it was just not in my budget. That stuff is expensive! The bottom is just the solid blue that I used for the quilt backing. The top is 2 pieces of fabric sewn together(right in the middle). I'm still not sure how I ended up with that much extra fabric. Now my son would like his walls painted red...so not going to happen. I guess it's debatable if this was a sewing success or fail. I think it will look more like a success once I put more filling in it. Then it wont look so much like a deflated balloon.

This is the quilt that nearly did me in. I made it for my wonderful son Logan for his 6th birthday. It took me 3 months which I was fine with. I knew it would take me a while to do, that's why I started so far in advance. Plenty of time, right? I wanted it to be perfect so while I didn't stress about time(at that time anyway) I did stress about lines not sewn perfect. I got over it, eventually.I "flew" through the quilt. All was going well. I hand embroidered glow in the dark stars all over the quilt(sore fingers!!). And then I was introduced to binding. You know, that innocent looking strip of fabric around the quilt? Yeah, It's evil.Picture it: The night before Logans birthday. One sleep deprived mom at 11ish at night. The strips are all cut and sewn into one long strip. Every tutorial about how to sew binding on a quilt has been watched via youtube. I'm thinking "I got this, I have totally got this". I was totally wrong. I had a hard time figuring out what kind of stitch to use, I tried a top stitch(just the regular stitch) that didn't work so I ended up using a very tight zig-zag stitch. Again I think "I got this". I was wrong again. I'm on a roll when I run out of the thread I'm using, no big deal. That's why I bought 2 spools of that color. Hmm, I look in my sewing box(ha I won't lie it's really a tackle box for fishing), it's not there. I look in the Jo-ann Fabric bag, It's not there. I look on the floor, it's not there. Me out loud to furniture(my only company): "Where the freaking crap is my thread!?". I give up and use a multi color thread that matches to. So half of the binding is sewn on in solid blue and half is in a multi blue. Awesome. I wanted to cry. I'm actually not 100% sure that I didn't have a tear or two slip out. I finished somewhere in wee hours of the morning. Well there was one problem but I left it and fixed it about a week later as it wasn't something that was a huge deal. It was a little bit of the binding that I didn't catch both sides with the stitch. Easy fix.I gave the quilt to Logan and he loved it! All the insanity of the night and past 3 months were worth it.It took me almost a year to get my sewing machine out again. Seriously. After that quilt I wasn't sure I would ever sew again. When I did get it out it was to make a Window seat pillow with leftover fabric that matched the quilt. Logan was thrilled, again making all the work worth it.P.S. I found the other spool of thread under the table:

^ I couldn't see it while I was standing at any angle. I was sitting on the couch the next day and looked over. That spool sat there mocking me...No, really I could hear it.

I'm not the best seamstress. I still have to youtube crochet stitches. Really the only thing of the 3 that I do well is sleep, and I'm not even doing that very well. Being 28 weeks pregnant, comfortable isn't something I am very often. I'm nesting and don't really have anything to nest so to keep my husband from putting me in a straight jacket I have turned to sewing and crocheting...again. Yep, Again. I learned to do both in my teens. I was pretty good at sewing. Crocheting...about all I could do was chain(Yeah, I know impressive).What have I made the past 10 year(ugh has it really been that long since I was a teen? *Cringe*)Sewing:1)Skirt-my son was 2. I still have it2)Dress-Never finished it was a horrible color on me!3)Lap quilt-It had some seam issues, Oh we were being honest, it has seam issues but it's warm.4)Twin size quilt- For my son- I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown(more about that later)5)Window seat pillow-to match my sons quilt6)Cloth baby wipes-You read that right.7)Baby quilt-didn't get to the breakdown stage, until the binding part.8)Car Seat Canopy-Really proud of that one!Go ahead and do the math, yep. That's less than one thing a year. Actually 2 of those were made in the past 2 weeks. I just get more and more impressive.Crocheting:About 4 baby blankets 4 or so years ago. One I was making for my niece when she's born...4 years ago *hangs head in shame*.A few pot holders and dish clothsIn the last few months:1)A hooded baby blanket(so cute!)2)A brimmed baby hat with my first ever crocheted flower3)A shell baby beanie with a freaking awesome crocheted flowerIn Progress: 1)Scarf-I'm making for my hubby for Christmas...last year, I should just keep my head down until this post is over so much shame!2)Afghan- For my 18 year old niece...There is a good reason it's not done yet. No, really there is.

Well, there you have it. I'm not some awesome seamstress and I can't crochet in record time but I do my best. I have been pretty proud of the things I've made and the way I see it is the more I do these things the better I'll get. Maybe I'll work up to making my own clothing patterns....that scares me. Really it does. I like having someone else telling me how to make things...if I get it wrong I can blame someone else! Ha!Stay tuned I'll be posting some of the things I've made and talking about how I did it. As well as where you can find the tutorials I used for some of the projects.